Thoughts on Dr. Reef

[smitten with ocean life]

Blueface angel has been doing great in qt.
Wanted to share the pics and video for you to confirm.
It's healthy and about 7" or maybe more to 8"

thats a beautiful fish! my order comes tomorrow. cant wait!

 

[Dr. Reef]

Oh cool! Also can you order in fish that is not listed on the site?

Yes just email us and we will find what you are looking for

 

[littlefoxx]

Yes just email us and we will find what you are looking for

Cool! I just emailed you guysz

 

[braaap]

@Dr. Reef was looking at zoas on your site, how many polyps are the frags?? There are some beautiful zoas there!

Every time I order they say 3/4” or 3-4 polyps. It’s been double or triple every time. Insanely good service.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Every time I order they say 3/4” or 3-4 polyps. It’s been double or triple every time. Insanely good service.

Normally there are way more but some have minimal 4 and very few will say 1 head

 

[the register]

I logged back in and made my first post in a very long time just to say I appreciate the transparency and information @Dr. Reef you're giving in this thread. I have a fish + coral + macro order arriving from you tomorrow, and was googling around to see the latest info given I care about QT and had previously seen the humble fish forum discussions. I ended up finding this thread, and I feel highly confident in what'll arrive tomorrow.

I'll still likely follow the process I have with previous orders from you, where I put the fish in an isolation tank to get acclimated and make sure they're feeding, the coral I'll give a once over with a light and dip, and the macro I'll probably freshwater dip, but that's all because it seems prudent to do versus me being nervous about it.

Thanks for offering livestock that's cared for, providing the QT info, and the details here.

 

[linzlou4]

Blueface angel has been doing great in qt.
Wanted to share the pics and video for you to confirm.
It's healthy and about 7" or maybe more to 8"

Gorgeous! Will make a wonderful addition

 

[jhadaway]

I ordered from him twice now. You have to be flexible with the timeframe but everything i received was healthy. I always use an acclimation box and dim the lights too. No real complaints here.

 

[kyle78312]

I’ve ordered from them three times. The first everything was perfect. Fat healthy fish. The second two orders. Some fish sent very thin and frail. Deaths right away covered with store credit no problem. I do have several fish in the last two orders just disappear conveniently after the doa window expires. It's just too expensive to have your fish not do well and disappear when you have nothing aggressive in the tank as the culprit. I will say they did work with me and gave me half cost replacement on the fish that didn’t make it after the window, which I didn’t expect and greatly appreciated. But shipping skinny fish that refuse to eat is not great. I was so happy the first order and then sad the next two. I really wanted to love their service but I don’t think I will be ordering again. Just my experience, I know others have gotten healthy fish each time that thrive.

 

[JHSteepat]

I received a small Tomini tang, a tiny Springerii damsel, and a large male exquisite wrasse, per my order, and they sent a second, small exquisite wrasse I believe as backup. All were received in good health and they all seem well four days later, though the larger wrasse is skittish. I will be giving him to a friend with a large, covered FOWLR setup, where he should do well.

I am happy with this order.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I’ve ordered from them three times. The first everything was perfect. Fat healthy fish. The second two orders. Some fish sent very thin and frail. Deaths right away covered with store credit no problem. I do have several fish in the last two orders just disappear conveniently after the doa window expires. It's just too expensive to have your fish not do well and disappear when you have nothing aggressive in the tank as the culprit. I will say they did work with me and gave me half cost replacement on the fish that didn’t make it after the window, which I didn’t expect and greatly appreciated. But shipping skinny fish that refuse to eat is not great. I was so happy the first order and then sad the next two. I really wanted to love their service but I don’t think I will be ordering again. Just my experience, I know others have gotten healthy fish each time that thrive.

Hi
thank you for your feedback.
Quarantining fish with copper and prazi supresses appetite and some fish go skinny during their stay here. As soon as they start eating again we ship them out. Unfortunately this is the reality of our work, we cant pay as much attention to each fish as a client would at their home. We have 10k plus fish at any given time.
We discuss this issue here:

Skinny fish info

Hello Everyone Happy Holidays. This subject has been brought up a few times and I would like to clarify few things regarding "sometimes received skinny fish" issue. As you know we quarantine fish and then sell them in 30 days. During these 30 days they are with us, these fish are subjected to...

www.reef2reef.com

Either way we stand behind our work and if fish doesnt make it and we know of the issue within guarantee period we will always replace it. Some fish will go into hunger strike as soon as shipping stress hits them.
So there are many sensitive fish specially wrasses, angels and butterflies that may come skinny and go hungry for a while before starting to eat again, Its quite normal after the treatment we subject them to.

 

[GARRIGA]

Generally speaking. Personally don't believe two weeks of QT sufficient to identify what I'm aware of plus everything else I never bother getting a doctrine to identify.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Generally speaking. Personally don't believe two weeks of QT sufficient to identify what I'm aware of plus everything else I never bother getting a doctrine to identify.

We qt for 30 days, 14 in copper and 14 in other meds.in 5 yrs we had a handful of cases in which most all of them added something non qted into the tank, There is only 1 case of ich that maybe was a failed fallow.

 

[GARRIGA]

We qt for 30 days, 14 in copper and 14 in other meds.in 5 yrs we had a handful of cases in which most all of them added something non qted into the tank, There is only 1 case of ich that maybe was a failed fallow.

I'm not questioning your methods. Just saying that two weeks insufficient as to what was mentioned by the OP plus I fear more than ich and my comments were general and not directed at you specifically. He very specifically said only two weeks.

 

[Harpo]

The old saying is if your unhappy you will tell 10 people and if your happy youll tell 2 . This is somewhat true I believe. Ive purchased from Dr Reef a few times (just got a order 2 weeks ago) if there were issues they were addressed right away. Cant ask for anything more than that.

Very true

 

[litsoh]

I've personally never had any problems getting my fish from them to eat. Even if they did come in a bit skinny (which for me was only one clownfish) it took no time at all for them to fatten back up

 

[brandon429]

Dr. Reef, a side question

I'm wanting to know this about your production facility and handling of these bulk fish not from a disease angle but from a filtration angle


On a scale from 1-10 how much ammonia prediction do you do without testing and verification in your facility?


Myself I'm 100% or 10/10 for predictive ammonia for all my reefing career. I've never ran the test on any saltwater system I own, I don't own any ammonia test and never have, and for my consultation jobs I don't request ammonia testing from the tanks at hand.

I would imagine that for your home reef, you're not running daily tests out of concern for stability/ ammonia control except for the case that a seneye is in place they're running nh3 full time. Most of us reef at home that way

But for your facility, throngs of fish going out and in, various groups going into new holdings or coming out of them

Quarantine systems aren't high surface area like reef tanks, so are you managing your fish in/out job with two hip holsters with salifert on the left and api on the right, testing at a frenetic pace?

Or area you using predictive ammonia control even for quarantine? Are you able to assess surface area details in a given qt setup and know it'll carry your fish bioload merely by having done it so much for 5 years now or is it true that you have to constantly test and retest to balance your systems ammonia control?

We know how awesome gallons of fritz bacteria is: I'm not sure detailed testing is a requirement for that type of bacteria given your testing history with it already

You knew it's timing (instant bioload carry, no harm to fish) even before creating your fish business

Trusting fritz and having that work perfectly for five years counts as a win pattern. That would be predictive ammonia control, hoping there's another human out there who can intuit ammonia vs fear it with constant testing and reaction but in a fish facility where quarantine is in play i can understand it.

Figured I'd see if we're lucky enough that predictive ammonia abilities even apply to large scale fish production systems, wanting to know how far you take that skill.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Dr. Reef, a side question

I'm wanting to know this about your production facility and handling of these bulk fish not from a disease angle but from a filtration angle


On a scale from 1-10 how much ammonia prediction do you do without testing and verification in your facility?


Myself I'm 100% or 10/10 for predictive ammonia for all my reefing career. I've never ran the test on any saltwater system I own, I don't own any ammonia test and never have, and for my consultation jobs I don't request ammonia testing from the tanks at hand.

I would imagine that for your home reef, you're not running daily tests out of concern for stability/ ammonia control except for the case that a seneye is in place they're running nh3 full time. Most of us reef at home that way

But for your facility, throngs of fish going out and in, various groups going into new holdings or coming out of them

Quarantine systems aren't high surface area like reef tanks, so are you managing your fish in/out job with two hip holsters with salifert on the left and api on the right, testing at a frenetic pace?

Or area you using predictive ammonia control even for quarantine? Are you able to assess surface area details in a given qt setup and know it'll carry your fish bioload merely by having done it so much for 5 years now or is it true that you have to constantly test and retest to balance your systems ammonia control?

We know how awesome gallons of fritz bacteria is: I'm not sure detailed testing is a requirement for that type of bacteria given your testing history with it already

You knew it's timing (instant bioload carry, no harm to fish) even before creating your fish business

Trusting fritz and having that work perfectly for five years counts as a win pattern. That would be predictive ammonia control, hoping there's another human out there who can intuit ammonia vs fear it with constant testing and reaction

Hi Brandon
I dont have a single kit, neither at home nor at work.
We have trident on our coral systems and I do have idip 570 Marine meter that checks most all parameters but i have hardly ever used it.
Regarding ammonia, We have never used a kit to check nor we have ever had an issue with ammonia.
On the quarantine side, we have 4 x 55gal plumbled to 1 sump. In the sump we use skimmer heater and filter socks, Plus media block and some sand.
We use Fritz TurboStart 900 dosed 5 times the recommended dose and just release fish. All tanks get bleached after 30 days of use as qt and dry for 1 day and redose TurboStart 900 and off we go to next qt,
Never had any ammonia issues nor fish die due to ammonia.
On the retail side we have 8ft x 2ft x 16in tanks 10 of them plumbed together to a common sump.
Sumps are 48x48x36 fiberglass totes that most fishing companies use for tuna. 10 of them are plumbed togther as 1 sump for the Ten 8ft tanks.
Each one of those totes (10 together in an island) have sand and media blocks that harbor bacteria. we have 6 of such islands for fish and 3 for corals and 1 for inverts.
Everyone of those islands was started with Fritz Turbostart 900 and never had a water change since 4 yrs ago when we placed them in. Its retail side and nothing goes in it until unless qted.

So in short we never check ammonia.

 

[brandon429]

thank you x10 I had an inkling it was that way, had to know

thank you so much DR